


Space Malls and Apologies

by moretrash



Series: Dads of Marmora [30]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ??????, Apologies, Big Brother Shiro (Voltron), Dads of Marmora (Voltron), Dads of Marmora is there but it's not really focused on tbh, Happy Ending, I intended to make this angstier but it just... didn't happen, Light Angst, Me? Being unable to come up with a good title? It's more likely than you think, Pure Keith, Space Mall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 06:42:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14995067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moretrash/pseuds/moretrash
Summary: Keith goes to the space mall with his pack. There, he encounters the paladins, who can't hope but notice that Keith had been so much happier than he had been as a paladin.





	Space Malls and Apologies

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt:
> 
> " What if the paladins and the pack happen to go to the mall at the same time,, and they see how happy Keith is and the paladins get kinda jelly/upset they couldn't make him that happy?? Angst preferably, maybe with a happy ending if you can??"

Stops at the space mall was a routine thing for the Blade of Marmora. It was to gather supplies for the general good of the base and it was good for packs to have a day out together, wandering around or getting some new things for themselves. 

Keith enjoyed those little outings greatly, for he could always find something new and exciting at the many stores in the space mall. It was nice for Keith’s pack to see their youngest member so excited. It was extremely adorable to see Keith get so excited and impressed over something that they themselves had known existed since they had been born, and they had to remind themselves that Keith had never been off of Earth and that Earth had never interacted with an alien race of any sort, so of course Keith would never have known that certain products existed.

But this particular outing was special in everyone’s minds: it was the first outing in which Keith’s mother, Krolia, and twin sister, Acxa, would be included as part of their pack. The mother and daughter had slowly become a member of their little family, and this would be the first time they would tag along as true members of their pack.

Acxa was excited to have not only her twin brother, but a new big brother figure as well, and Krolia was happy to have a larger pack like she had always imagined having. She was a calming presence for the twin kits, who were often rambunctious if given the chance, though Keith really only was in the privacy of their nest. Keith had become closer to Krolia over time, and while not everything was completely fixed between them, Keith appreciated having her around.

At the current moment, Keith was following his pack around the mall, having to jog to keep up with their naturally longer strides. They all had longer legs and, as a result, they walked farther per step. Even Acxa had longer legs due to her dominant Galra genes since birth, while Keith had grown with his human genes being dominant. Keith’s breath was coming in pants and he felt a stitch in his side that got worse the longer he kept up. 

“C-can you guys slow down a bit?” Keith blurted out, his voice hesitant. Thace turned around in confusion, his eyes widening when he saw Keith.

“Of course, kit. Why didn’t you tell us we were going too fast for you? We would have slowed down so you could keep up.” Thace said, causing the others to stop as well. Keith flushed lightly and looked away from the group as he scrambled for an explanation.

“I thought I would be fine.” Keith admitted, his voice soft. His pack was still working on getting him to voice smaller needs such as that, but it was a step in the right direction that Keith admitted the truth when prompted. Ulaz frowned a bit.

“Keith, what have we talked about in regards to hiding your needs to suit others?” He said, his voice slightly scolding but a type of infinitely soft that made Keith melt. 

“You said not to because my needs are just as important.” Keith said softly, smiling when he was sat on a bench so he could rest and catch his breath, not noticing the group of people watching him from the other side of the room.

-

Lance had noticed Keith first; how could he not recognize his own boyfriend’s voice? He quickly looked over to where he heard the voice, grinning when he was correct in his assumption that it was his wonderful boyfriend. He watched from afar as Ulaz sat Keith down, gently scolding him about not speaking up about his needs.

“Is anyone hungry?” Lance heard Thace ask, though it was mostly for Keith and Acxa’s benefit. The two couldn’t eat as much as a full Galra without getting sick, so they usually had snacks throughout the day in addition to their meals. It was getting around the time of midmorning when the pair of twins would eat a small snack, so it was likely that the pair were starting to get a bit peckish. As Thace had predicted, the pair of twins shyly answered that they were a bit hungry, and could go for a snack. 

Lance watched as the group went over to a small kiosk rather than a food court, a kiosk that Lance remembered sold pretzel-like food. When Keith got his snack, he looked around in curiosity, no doubt searching for a place that he would be excited to explore. His eyes landed on the paladins, his violet irises widening for a moment before he grinned.

“GUYS!” Keith yelled in an admittedly uncharacteristic show of excitement. Even his pack jumped at the sound, having never heard anything like that from Keith. They looked over as Keith darted off, hugging Shiro tightly in greeting. Shiro looked surprised for a moment before wrapping his arms around Keith.

“Hey, buddy. I missed you.” Shiro said, his voice the same gentle, comforting big-brother type of tone that he always used with Keith. Lance pouted playfully and poked Keith’s cheek.

“You’re not even gonna give your boyfriend a hug?” He said, his voice clearly teasing. Keith gave a short laugh before pulling away from Shiro and hugging Lance, giving him a quick kiss in greeting. Hugs and cuddling were things that Keith could handle just fine, but kisses were still a new thing for him, so a majority of kisses initiated by Keith were usually gentle pecks. Lance didn’t mind, though. 

“I missed you so much, babe.” Lance said, clinging on tighter for a moment. Keith smiled as he pulled away, chuckling lightly at the playful pout Lance gave.

“I missed you too, Lance.” Keith said. That was another thing about Keith: he wasn’t great with pet names. He always called Lance by his name, though Lance never minded. He would love to be called pet names, of course, but he also wanted Keith to be comfortable. If Keith wasn’t entirely comfortable with using pet names, Lance wasn’t about to push him to do it.

“Keith! We haven’t seen you in forever, man!” Hunk said, pulling Keith into a friendly side hug. Keith nodded and wrapped an arm around Hunk with a grin. 

“Yeah, it has been a while. Sorry about that, by the way guys. I’ve been super busy with blade stuff.” Keith said, his voice sheepish. Pidge shrugged in dismissal.

“Actually, it works out. We’ve been pretty busy with Voltron stuff, so we probably wouldn’t have had time to hang out anyway. But all things aside, I missed you.” They said, their voice happy as they hugged Keith. Keith chuckled and hugged Pidge tightly. He had become closer friends with Pidge ever since he had discovered his Galra heritage. Pidge had, after all, been the first one to accept him, been the first one to encourage him to explore his heritage, and had been the first one to accept the fact that he enjoyed wearing dresses. Overall, Pidge had been a great, encouraging friend. 

“What are you doing here, Keith?” Shiro asked curiously. Keith shrugged and smiled happily, completely content now that he could be with his friends as well as his family. 

“The blades stopped for supplies. We decided to explore a bit.” He answered. Lance pulled Keith close, laughing when the half-Galra stumbled in surprise.

“We’re here to explore and take a break.” Lance said, kissing Keith’s head and snagging a small chunk of Keith’s snack. Keith gasped in mock offense, pouting and playfully shoving Lance. 

“Maybe we can explore together, if your pack doesn’t mind.” Pidge suggested. Keith shrugged and swallowed his mouthful of food before responding.

“I’m sure they wouldn’t mind at all. I mean, they might have some boring stores they need to go to, and I’m supposed to stay where they can see me, so I can’t just wander off with you guys.” Keith said. Lance tilted his head.

“You need to stay where they can see you? No offense, Keith, but your pack seems stupidly overprotective.” He said. Keith blushed and avoided eye contact.

“Its actually my fault. I separated from them one time and got completely lost, and I freaked out because I thought they had left me behind here.” Keith admitted. Shiro nodded i understanding and patted Keith’s back.

“That’s fine, Keith. We’d love to hang out with you anyway. But I do think you should check with Kolivan first.” He said. Keith nodded and went back over to his pack, who were patiently waiting for him while munching on their own snacks.   
“Welcome back, kit. Are you ready to go?” Antok asked. Keith nodded and grinned.

“I am, but I was wondering if my friends could tag along too? They’re here for the day too.” Keith said. Kolivan shrugged a bit and glanced at the rest of the pack.

“I don’t see why they can’t. But you know you can’t go off with them without letting us know first. We don’t want a repeat of our first visit.” Kolivan said. To anyone else, it would have seemed overprotective, but to Keith, it filled him with warmth to know that his pack wanted to take measures to make sure Keith didn’t get lost again. It was just another thing that let him know that they really cared about him. Keith trotted over to the paladins again and pulled them over to his pack happily. Lance, having heard Kolivan’s reminder to Keith, frowned. Had they ever made sure Keith felt safe in the space mall?

It didn’t seem like they did, considering previous trips to the mall with Keith. They had always just left Keith to wander around, not caring a bit about what Keith thought. But Shiro remembered the fact that Keith sometimes got overwhelmed in large crowds like the mall, and felt a sting of guilt when he realized that he had never checked with Keith to make sure he was feeling okay. 

Keith was never very vocal about his needs, a fact well known to everyone. He never would have told them he didn’t feel okay alone in the large store, wouldn’t have told him that he was worried they would leave him behind. But Pidge knew this wasn’t an excuse at all, that someone should have made sure Keith was okay with being left alone. 

But did that really make things okay? Pidge had seen the exchange when Keith needed to take a break. All of his pack had stopped without a second thought, without a complaint, just because Keith needed it. Thace had made sure Keith had the snack that he needed. They had made sure he was okay in every sense of the word, something that Lance was sure they had never done. They had never slowed down when Keith needed a break, never made sure he was eating right. Lance knew that Keith had skipped meals often during his time as a paladin, so why hadn’t he done anything. He was ashamed to admit, even to himself, that it was because Keith was his rival, and he hadn’t cared as much as he had when he’d developed a crush on Keith. Keith looked so much healthier now that his pack made sure he was eating right. Lance felt a slight sadness when he realized that Keith could have looked that healthy if they had only cared a bit more about him. 

As the group walked through the mall, Hunk noticed that Keith seemed to be positively skipping as he walked with them, a small smile on his face. Hunk had never seen Keith so open with his emotions, so openly happy. Hunk felt his heart drop as he realized that they had always mocked Keith for showing his emotions on the rare times that he did. If Keith laughed, one of them would teasingly say “oh, I didn’t know you could laugh!” When Keith felt comfortable enough around them to cry, they had simply gone “wow, I didn’t know you could actually feel!” And, to rub salt into the wound for Hunk, they had had the audacity to complain about the fact that Keith never smiled or laughed, or showed any emotion other than anger. 

Watching Keith, Hunk could see that he was definitely a lot more emotional than he had appeared to be as a paladin. His tail waved in excitement and he trotted from store to store. Lance offered Keith his hand, though Keith paused and glanced at Lance in confusion.

“I wanna hold your hand, silly.” Lance said. Keith hesitantly linked hands with the other and resumed his walking, giving an experimental swing between them, glancing at Lance for confirmation. Lance smiled a bit.

“Keith, its fine, you can swing our hands if you want.” Lance said, his voice sad as he considered the fact that Keith constantly looked at him for confirmation that the very simple things he was doing was right. He had to remind himself that Keith had never been in a relationship before, and that he was just hesitant since he had only ever seen couples on TV or on the city streets. But still, Lance felt that he should have been more open to teaching Keith things, regretting all the times Keith had hesitantly asked for Lance to teach him things and Lance had turned him away. 

Lance smiled when Keith resumed the slight swinging, humming quietly. Krolia smiled when she saw how happy her son looked, glancing over at Regris.

“How is your garden coming along, Regris?” She asked, getting Acxa’s attention with the phrase. 

“It’s going great! My flowers are starting to sprout, but obviously it’ll take a while longer for the trees to sprout.” Regris said. The pack nodded and smiled a bit. 

“Keith, how is your garden doing?” Krolia asked, remembering that Keith had started a garden around the same time Regris had. Keith perked up and shrugged.

“I mean, it’s going well, I think. My morning glories and snapdragons are sprouting, which I’m excited about.” Keith said, his eyes as wide as dinner plates as he explained his garden. Shiro realized that Keith was an extremely easy person to please, and not in a bad way. He wanted affection and love, and someone to just listen to his interests with genuine interest. His pack gave him that, though Shiro knew that when he was a paladin, Keith didn’t have that. Keith had never had the affection that he needed, and no one really took interest in his training. Shiro tried to tell himself that he was the leader, he didn’t always have time for Keith, but he promptly felt sick at the fact that he was trying to make excuses for ignoring Keith. Shiro was like his family in every way but blood, and Keith had always made time to listen to Shiro if Shiro needed to get something off of his chest. Yet, he hadn’t had the decency to do the same for him. 

The paladins all noticed that Keith seemed so much more open and happy than when he was still a paladin. They were grateful to his pack for that, knowing that they had most likely shown Keith that showing emotions was okay, or talking about his interests was okay, or being affectionate was okay. They had shown Keith that it was okay to be himself in every setting, which was something the paladins had never done. They had only ever told Keith to settle down when he was being overly emotional, which they regretted immensely. Had they ever told Hunk to settle down when he was crying? Did they ever tell Shiro to calm down when he was upset? No, so why did they treat Keith so differently? 

-

Keith noticed something was wrong with his friends around the time that the group paused in the food court for lunch. He had chosen a seat between Acxa and Lance, eating a plate of food that Ulaz had picked up for him, having told the three kits in the pack to rest their legs. He noticed how all of the paladins just seemed dejected, sad. Keith couldn’t help but worry that it was something that he had done or said during the day, feeling awful if that was the case. He never wanted to see his friends sad for any reason, though he wasn’t the greatest at comforting, either. But he tried his best, even if it often came across as cold. 

He decided to speak up when the rest of his pack wandered off to get some sweets from a nearby sweet shop. Keith was allowed to stay because the sweet shop was located where they could still see Keith. Regris had promised to get Keith a bag of candy, though Keith didn’t have much of a sweet tooth anyway, so he didn’t particularly care what Regris got him. 

“What’s been up with you guys today?” Keith asked, looking at the paladins. Shiro looked over in confusion.

“What do you mean, buddy?” He asked, causing Keith to smile a bit. If it was too bad, Shiro wouldn’t have called him ‘buddy’. The black paladin had been calling Keith that since they had met, and it had been the first true nickname he had ever been given; Shiro only ever not used it when Keith had done something that had irritated him, such as putting himself in harm’s way. 

“You guys have been kind of upset all day.” Keith explained. His ears pinned back sadly and his tail drooped. “I didn’t do anything, did I?” He asked worriedly. All of the paladins were quick to console him, lest they have an upset Keith and his angry pack on their hands.

“No, no, no, babe! You didn’t do anything. Really, I think we’re upset because of what we never did, in a sense.” Lance said, rubbing Keith’s back and massaging his ears in hopes of coaxing them back upright. Keith tilted his head as he leaned into a hug from Hunk.

“What do you guys mean?” Keith asked, tilting his head. Pidge sighed a bit.

“I don’t think we ever really… recognized you, as more than an angry, confrontational paladin. Seeing you with your pack just reminded us of that.” They said. Keith still looked confused, glancing at Shiro for more of an explanation.

“Pidge is right, buddy. We didn’t treat you the way you deserved to be treated. Seeing you with your pack, and seeing you so happy… It reminded us of everything we did wrong.” Shiro explained. “I never paid much attention to you, and no, don’t say I had better things to do than listen to your problems. I always make time for that, you know that, and I forgot to.”

“I never told you that affection and contact with us was okay. You came to me to ask for that affection and I turned you away because of a stupid rivalry. Being touch-starved is a thing for humans, but it must have been so much worse for you since touch is a biological need for Galra.” Lance said, his voice soft.

“We never paid attention to your interests even though you paid so much attention to ours. To listen to Pidge’s explanations of advanced science concepts even though they go straight over your head. You listen to Lance talk about his sharpshooting even though you don’t understand as much of it as he does. You listen to me talk about my cooking even though you couldn’t understand a lot of my explanations of why certain ingredients can’t go together. But, when it came to your interests, we never listened. We never took interest in it just because it was training. It was boring to us, so we ignored it, when you listened to things that bored you.” Hunk said. Keith shrugged in dismissal.

“I don’t really like talking about stuff like that anyway, so I guess it’s fine.” He said. Hunk shook his head with a frown.

“No, it isn’t okay, don’t try to say it’s okay. You don’t like to talk about yourself, so it’s all the more special when you do. But we just ignored you or made fun of your interests, instead of genuinely listening.” Hunk said.

“We also made fun of you every time you showed any emotion other than anger, which, in a sense, trained you to think that you couldn’t show your emotions or you would be ridiculed, which is absolutely unacceptable on our part. Instead of sharing your happiness or excitement, we teased you about the fact that you never smiled. Instead of comforting you when you were upset, we just made fun of the fact that you were crying. We have no excuses for it. In short, Keith, we’re angry at ourselves for not treating you the way you absolutely deserve to be treated: with the same love and respect as we give anyone else on the castle. We’re really sorry, Keith. But don’t say it’s okay, it’s not.” Pidge said. Keith looked confused, tilting his head. He noticed that all four of the paladins looked close to crying when they remembered how badly they had treated Keith, which only made Keith upset since he didn’t understand why it was a big deal.

“Well, you said not to say it’s okay, so I guess I’ll say I forgive you? I never really considered those problems, in all honesty, though.” Keith said. The paladins smiled and pulled Keith into a group hug.

“From now on, consider any behavior like that a problem. You deserve so much more, buddy, never doubt that.” Shiro said. Keith grinned and clung to the paladins as best as he could with only two arms and four paladins, still not entirely sure why his treatment was such a big deal.

From afar, Kolivan kept an eye on the exchange between Keith and his friends. Whatever the problem was that day seemed to be in the process of being worked out, which relieved Kolivan. Keith didn’t need to have tension between him and his friends, so he was extremely happy to see Keith embraced by the paladins. As the rest of the pack paid for their individual bags of various sweets Thace had gone for more chocolatey candy, Ulaz had always had a liking for the gummy variety, Acxa had purchased some hard candies, Krolia had picked up candies that were gummy, but most of them were filled with flavored gel in the middle, Antok and Kolivan had both purchased mostly sour candy, an Regris had gotten some jelly beans that he explained was from Earth, some fudge, and some licorice. Regris had also gotten Keith some jelly beans, but had picked a variety of other types of candy from all sorts of planets for Keith to try.

The group headed back to where the paladins were sitting.

“Does anyone else want to visit a specific store?” Antok asked. 

“I’d really like to pick up a few more dresses. I saw a store in the last hallway that had some pretty looking ones.” Keith said. Lance perked up.

“Only if you let us help. I think we could work together to find some dresses that really suit you. I think you’d be the type of person who’d like a sweater-dress.” Lance said. Keith tilted his head.

“Sweater-dress?” Keith asked. Lance brightened and nodded.

“Yeah! You know a sweater-vest? That, but a dress. Like, a dress made out of that material and has long sleeves and keeps you warm. I think you’d like it.” Lance said. Keith thought for a moment and nodded.

“I think I would.” He said, starting to wander in the direction of the clothing store. The adults in the pack trailed behind, watching their kits interact with the paladins. Though, they were pretty sure they’d eventually become their kits as well.

Everything had turned out just as well as they had imagined this day going.

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my tumblr legendary-marmorans !


End file.
